The Compositionality Papers

Ernie Lepore and Jerry Fodor have published a series of original and controversial essays on issues relating to compositionality in language and mind; they have now revised them all for publication together in this volume. Compositionality is the following aspect of a system of representation: the complex symbols in the system inherit their syntactic and semantic properties from the primitive symbols of the system. Fodor and Lepore argue that compositionality determines what view we must take of the nature of concepts. Anyone trying to figure out how language and mind work must take account of this challenging work by two leading figures in the field. Why Meaning (probably) Isn't Conceptual Role -- The Pet Fish And The Red Herring : Why Concepts Still Can't Be Prototypes -- Why Compositionality Won't Go Away : Reflections On Horwich's Deflationary Theory -- What Can't Be Valued Can't Be Valued, And It Can't Be Supervalued Either -- The Emptiness Of The Lexicon : Reflections On Pustejovsky -- Impossible Words? -- Brandom's Burdens : Compositionality And Inferentialism -- Paul Churchland And State Space Semantics -- All At Sea In Semantic Space : Churchland On Meaning Similarity. Jerry Fodor And Ernest Lepore. Rev. Papers, Previously Published In Various Sources, 1991-2001. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [201]-205) And Indexes. Topics include: why meaning probably isn't conceptual; why concepts aren't prototypes; why compositionality won't go away - reflections on Horwich's "deflationary theory"; decomposition; new pragmatists; a critical study of Brandom's articulating reasons; and churchland on state space semantics.